The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations- DBPR- is warning ALL Florida real estate licensees, that is agents and brokers that apparently there is an identity theft scam that is targeting real estate licensees. For more information on the warning, click here. An unsolicited email which appears to be from the Department warns of pending disciplinary action against licenses. The email directs the recipient to call a Department investigator at a toll-free number and provide personal identification information.

Of course, any email like this is meant to scare the pants off of you and throw you off guard so that your defensive mechanism steps up to take action to protect your livelihood from possibly being pushed to a stop. This is intentional.

The broker is then told in the email to call an 800 number, provide their personal information to a ” department investigator” .
The Department has confirmed that the email communication is in no way connected with the Department or its regulatory authority. This email is NOT from DBPR, the investigator is a scammer trying to get your personal information so they can steal the caller’s identity.

If you get an email like this DO NOT RESPOND TO THE EMAIL and DO NOT CALL THE NUMBER IN THE EMAIL!!!!

Instead, call the DBPR at 850-487-1395 or go to the website to check on the status of your license and if there are any actions being taken on your license.

The theft of identity is a crime and should be reported to the authorities and to your local law enforcement.

The Department is currently investigating this scam and will keep updates on their website.